The Dead are Still Walking.

    So since last week was Easter I decided to go with the Zombie theme of the day and play through the newest Walking Dead game.

    Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
    Players 1
    Rating M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

    Well this one is considerably different from the first Walking Dead game. For one thing it's a first person shooter and, while I've never played all the episodes, has weaker characters.
    To summarize the game you control Daryl who is some kind of American Redneck during a Zombie outbreak. Using melee and guns you have to navigate your way to a point where Daryl can be evacuated from the area. To accomplish this you have to track down gasoline for your vehicle while avoiding the hordes of zombies. To advance the story you have to pick where you are going to drive to and how you want to get there at which point the game will drive you there. Breaking up these trips are events, such as a flat tire which must then be fetched or cars blocking the road which must be moved. Some of the events can be skipped, as the game often gives you a choice as to whether or not you go a-roaming. You are able to pick up survivors and take them with you on your journeys but they always remain buckled in and waiting for you to get back unless it is a story area. During which you can send them off to go gather supplies. This is also one of the first games I have played in a long time with a true health bar, which you can replenish through the mystical properties of Gatorade or MREs. You only get a limited number of inventory slots so you have to pick what you are going to take with you into a level or else risk having to leave something behind. Anything you don't take is stored with your car. You start out with a truck that can only hold two other survivors, I guess they never thought to ride in the bed.
    I guess that basically sums up the game. Now on to my thoughts.
    To be honest with you gentle readers the game is pretty bad. The controls are sticky and the melee attacks sometimes feel a bit slower than you think they are. I also found that in a couple of areas I ended up mobbed by a horde of Zombies that I had no way of knowing how I was supposed to get around. Turned out I was supposed to run away from them in blatant contrast to the rest of the game which has a pretty heavy stealth focus. Another issue that blights the game is that there are a very limited number of levels and those are repeated quite a bit. The game looks terrible as well. I'm pretty sure I've seen better looking PS2 games. Fortunately for this game I don't set great store in graphics. Unfortunately the game is also very short, about six to eight hours or so. The only available mode for play is the campaign which doesn't do much to endear itself to more than one playthrough even with the additional areas that you can go to. Repeated levels make it feel like a grind at times with the only thing that you want to do is get out of the area as fast as possible. The Zombies appear dozy and less than a true threat a lot of the time with some of them seeming to suffer from short-sightedness and utter blindness when you are standing three feet in front of them with your flashlight on. The levels themselves wouldn't feel quite as repeated if they weren't all, with the exception of the story locations, very small and linear. Flares and glass bottles can be thrown to distract zombies but many times I found them to be fairly pointless as many of the zombies can be killed quickly and easily by sneaking up on them which isn't hard. They would have been a more important feature of my arsenal if the zombies didn't only occasionally show up in larger numbers than one to three. I think the biggest flaw isn't in the gameplay; it lies with the story. Primarily that there really isn't one, the game piddles around for the main portion of its story and while that might be the case in this kind of apocalypse I wanted more out of it and a closer connection to the character who I was controlling, who never truly endeared himself to me. Of course games like Bioshock showed us that you don't need to have a full character to have a good game, but they have to be supported by a good ensemble. Walking Dead's survivors never really do anything once you've picked them up. It's almost as though being around the redneck their character falls off and they become automatons.
    All that said I actually liked the game. It was a different experience than most of the main games out there today. Even with its flaws I would love to see more games along the same vein. Even Left 4 Dead with its Zombie focus didn't hit this for me. I felt like stealth was the main focus I should be working on. Since firing a weapon like your shotgun attracts Zombies to your location I spent a lot of my time avoiding it and while I did have a couple of moments that felt like cheap deaths I seldom felt like I was being screwed over. When I screwed up the stealth I was usually able to fight my way clear to safety.

    I wouldn't buy this game, at least nowhere near full price. But if you want a game that is a little different and don't mind the warts this is one that is worth renting. I would say it's worth about 15-20 bucks. Low replay value hurt it but I had fun with it despite the low quality.